BrightSale Foresees a Decline in High Street Estate Agency

Leading online estate agent BrightSale today predicted that the current downturn in house prices and completion rates would lead to a rapid decline in the £5 billion high street estate agency market.

BrightSale forecasts that the high street agent will be relegated to ‘niche’ status by 2013 as the industry moves online in the face of a steep decline in commission income.

Commenting on the publication of a major BrightSale research report (Is There a Future for High Street Estate Agency?) BrightSale Managing Director Andy Etches said:

"A combination falling house prices and completion rates is going to cause major upheaval in the next couple of years. Many traditional agents are already struggling. We demonstrate in this report that the high costs associated with an increasingly redundant branch network are going to be the anchor that sinks the traditional agency ship.

Online estate agency, by contrast, is growing rapidly. Online listings are up 58% in just the last nine months (to 3,200), making the online sector now the 10th largest ‘estate agent’ in the country.

Vendors are feeling the pinch, and they are keen to secure the best deal possible when selling their properties. This is causing them to migrate to online agents in record numbers."

Note to Editors:

The BrightSale’s ‘full service’ model combines a low percentage fee of 0.5% with human negotiators based in offices in Surrey and Manchester. The company was established in January 2007, and has almost 300 property listings.

ENDS

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Press Contacts and further information.

Visit BrightSale at www.brightsale.co.uk

Full report is available for free at www.brightsale.com/research/

For further information contact:

Andy Etches on 07515 888455 BrightSale, andy@brightsale.co.uk